In mens' college soccer, the University of Vermont Catamounts' hopes for playing in the NCAA tournament are now reduced to waiting to find out if they'll receive an at-large bid. UVM would have preferred to get in by winning the America East tournament but that possibility was dashed yesterday when the Cats were knocked out in the semi-finals by the Albany Great Danes 2-0 in upstate New York.
The second seeded Danes will take on Hartford in the finals on Sunday and UVM won't find out until Monday whether their 13-6-1 record will warrant an invitation to go to the big dance. The Catamounts had no such anxiety last year when they won the America East tourney and received an automatic bid as a result. Best chance for the Catamounts to change the fate of yesterday's game came when Bernard Yeboah headed a shot that hit the crossbar of the goal, and was cleared out by an Albany defender on the rebound. Just a minute and a half after that chance the Danes got the only goal they would need on a chip shot by Alfonso Pinheiro that floated just under the bar bt over the reach of UVM keeper Aron Runarrson.
A guy with a name that's fun to say heard it chanted by the home town crowd in Washington D.C. last night. Otter Porter of the Washington Wizards scored a career high 34 points and added 14 rebounds as the Wizards walloped the Boston Celtics 118-93 for just their second win of the season. Otter Porter played his college ball at Georgetown so is very much a fan favorite and the Wizards needed him to be at his best on a night when their star player John Wall was ejected from the contest and Bradley Beal was forced out with a hamstring injury.
The Celtics, meanwhile, are off to a terrible start to their season, due largely to injuries to players like defensive specialist Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder and their big free agent signing Al Horford, but the absence of those players doesn't excuse what has so far been a non-existent effort at playing defense. The Wizards opened up a 26 point lead after just one quarter last night and never looked back, as the Celtics drop to 3-4 on the year.
One NFL game tonight and the only real reason to watch is to see whether the Cleveland Browns can go winless in nine games, or get their first victory of the season and save themselves from potentially joining the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only team to go 0-16 on the season. Detroit is not the only NFL team to ever go winless in an entire season, though. Trivia points if you know I'm about to mention the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers who debuted in their inaugural season in the league in unenviable style, going 0-14 that year, back when the NFL played a 14 rather than 16-game regular season schedule.
In the NHL the Boston Bruins are back in action tonight, hoping to rebound from a literal last minute loss to the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night. They'll be hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets at TD Garden. The Canadiens play host to the L.A. Kings at the Bell Centre.
